In 1956, Solzhenitsyn was released from exile by the Soviet government. In 1962, Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), ordered the publication of Solzhenitsyn’s series of works depicting life in labor camps to use his work to overthrow Stalin.
However, this was short-lived. Khrushchev fell from power, and Solzhenitsyn’s works were quickly banned from publication in the Soviet Union. By then, copies of the manuscript were already circulating in underground publications among the Russian people, and they had even spread outside of the Soviet Union to other countries.
In 1970, despite Soviet interference, the Nobel Prize selection committee awarded Solzhenitsyn the Nobel Prize for Literature.
‘The Gulag Archipelago’
It was in 1973 that The Gulag Archipelago, a masterpiece that exposed the inside story of the entire Soviet labor camp system, was published overseas.
This work thoroughly angered the Soviet authorities, and in February 1974, the General Secretary of the CPSU, Leonid Brezhnev, signed an order stripping Solzhenitsyn of his nationality, forcibly putting him on a plane, and deporting him. He went into exile, eventually settling in the United States 10 months later, where he lived in rural Vermont for nearly two decades.
The Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Solzhenitsyn for his novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, a story depicting life inside a forced labor camp. In the novel, the protagonist Ivan, through the course of his day, resists the attempts of the authorities to dehumanize him.
It underscores the fact that no matter how much despotic brutality may degrade people, it cannot destroy human nature, as God’s grace can redeem humanity destroyed.
‘Men have forgotten God’
It is said that “conscience is more important and valuable than life itself.”
The same applies to works such as The Gulag Archipelago and Cancer Ward. Solzhenitsyn did not intend to overthrow the Communist Party or revolutionize the system; in his writings, he focused not on its political evils, but on the moral corruption of communism.
Solzhenitsyn believed that the re-establishment of moral foundations could only be achieved through faith. This, in turn, would pave the way for divine virtues such as love, mercy, justice, and forgiveness to flourish, helping lead society down a more favorable path.
He said: “I spent almost fifty years studying the history of our revolution and collecting testimonies from witnesses. If I were to briefly state what caused that catastrophic revolution that cost the lives of sixty million fellow citizens, I think nothing would be more accurate than repeating the phrase: ‘Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened'”.
Ultimately, Solzhenitsyn viewed the decline of humanity’s morals and spirituality as the fundamental factors that gave rise to the atrocities of the Soviet regime.
‘God conducts Solzhenitsyn’s pen’
In 1990, Solzhenitsyn’s citizenship was restored, and in 1994, after 20 years in exile, he returned to Russia from Vermont. His first stop was Siberia, where he’d initially been detained at the headquarters of the forced labor camp where he would be placed. As he returned to his native land and faced a large and welcoming crowd, his first act was to lean over and touch the soil of Siberia with his hands.
Upon meeting the new Russian president, Solzhenitsyn did not display a welcoming expression, despite Yeltsin greeting and awarding him the honor. Instead, he lashed out at Russia for abandoning the communist path without thoroughly purging the evil remnants of communism from the country.
Unlike Germany’s comprehensive reckoning, there was a lack of effort to eliminate the wrongs of the authoritarian party in Russia. This oversight, said Solzhenitsyn, led to rushed privatization, a descent into an oligarchy, and the destruction of cultural morality, essentially creating a second exploitation of the people.
Yeltsin helplessly responded: “God conducts Solzhenitsyn’s pen.”
He was an outspoken critic of Western liberalism as well. In his view, America had largely degenerated into a society of vulgar material consumerism.
Concerning the West
In essence, Solzhenitsyn saw two distinct facets of the West: one was a conservative West that prized traditional values and emphasized Christianity. At the same time, the other was a West that emphasized atheism and encouraged indulgence under the banner of freedom.
He said these two opposing forces, one left and one right, have been engaged in a fierce struggle for dominance regarding ideology, thought, and discourse. Through the lens of his Christian faith, he observed that the West had undergone a gradual erosion of moral values over time under the influence of atheism and liberalism.
Solzhenitsyn lived out the remainder of his years in his home country. From 2003 onward, he resided in a dacha near Moscow, where he remained indoors due to health issues. Despite his poor health, he steadfastly maintained a daily work routine at his desk.
On August 3, 2008, Solzhenitsyn suffered a heart attack. The great writer of Russia, the conscience of humanity, passed away at the age of 89.
As Solzhenitsyn once said of life: “The meaning of earthly existence lies not, as we have grown used to thinking, in prospering, but in the development of the soul.”
Solzhenitsyn’s life and works are a testament to his commitment to elevating the soul above all else, leaving behind a lasting legacy that continues to spark self-reflection and promote the human spirit.
See Part 1 here.
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